A great number of applications are known of Heat Pump Water Heaters with CO2 as refrigerant especially the ECO Cute developed in Japan. A great number of Heat Pump Water heaters have been installed in Japan and have a growing market in China. The Heat Pump Centre of Japan has published a brochure and some examples in Japan:

  • Koraku Onyado Fujiginkei –  This hotel it built in Lake Kawaguchi Area at the foot of Mt. Fuji, now a registered world heritage site. When the refurbishment was done, they installed a low-cost, environmentally friendly commercial Eco Cute, out of consideration for the environment and the continued development of the area. Thanks to the system’s cutting-edge technology, energy-saving performance and ability to reduce costs, they receive an energy-saving subsidy from the government in 2012, covering one third of the total cost.
  • Tateyama Country Club – The new clubhouse was rebuilt in 2012. It is a fully electric building that combines safety and ease of maintenance, as well as protecting the environment and saving energy. For the hot water supply, load leveling was achieved by effective use of heat pump water heater combined with thermal storage tank which utilizes the less expensive overnight power. For air conditioning, high-efficiency heat pump system were installed for each room. The kitchens meanwhile are fitted with fully electric systems that maintain hygiene whilst also creating an excellent working environment.
  • Sakakibara Heart Institute of Okayama – The concept of rebuilding this hospital was to save energy and improve the safety, comfort and cost of facilities, with the aim of improving management efficiency and reinforcing business continuity in the event of a disaster. In order to improve system efficiency air conditioning facilities combine high-efficiency heat pumps with Eco Ice and Eco Cute for hot water supply were installed.
  • Abenobashi Terminal Building is a multi-purpose commercial facility in Abenosuji Itchome, Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan. It consists of the New Annex (main tenants: Osaka Abenobashi Station, Abeno Harukas Kintetsu Main Store Wing Building), Eastern Annex (Tennoji Miyako Hotel), and a 300 m (984 ft) tall skyscraper Abeno Harukas. The reconstruction began in January 2010, and opened on March 7, 2014. The building is 300 meters tall and has 62 floors, making it the tallest building in Japan. It is the planned alternative station building of Ōsaka Abenobashi Station, the terminal of Kintetsu Minami Osaka Line. Its floor space is around 100,000 square meters, making it the biggest department store in Japan.[2] It contains the new Main Store of Kintetsu Department Store, Marriott International hotel, and new headquarters office of Sharp Corporation.
  • Hotel Orion MOTOBU Resort & Spa An unprecedented energy saving method was pursued for this facility by integrating air conditioning and sanitation, while also resulting in the complexity of the system. Cooling water from a turbo refrigerator and waste heat from exhaust of the desiccant air conditioner are utilized for sanitation. Cool air from a heat pump (for supplying hot water) is used for air conditioning, and waste heat from hot springs, well water, and warm water from a solar water heater are also used. The system utilizes all of the above together, and has high energy saving performance, but cannot be operated through adjustment based on intuition and experience. Therefore, we provided energy management with LCEM from design to operation.

In Europe the market is developing slower for ECO Cute:

  • France – Eco-Cute – Villa Plaisance du Touch in a suburb of Toulouse – New built low energy luxury apartment building with a collective hot water circulation on air source heat pump with CO2 as refrigerant. This type of CO2 system, in the deployment phase in France and in Europe, can be applied to capacities below 3kW and up to several tens of kW. This allows broad coverage on applications where DHW consumption is high, such as collective residential applications.
  • Netherlands – The Albus Hotel – Amsterdam – This renovation of the Albus hotel in Amsterdam became the first completely CO2-neutral hotel in Europe. The specially purchased state-of-the-art Mitsubishi Electric Multi R2 VRF system cools and heats all the rooms. In addition, it is also possible to heat the hotel’s hot water up to a maximum of 90°C with a Mitsubishi Eco Cute QAHV. Thus the hotel’s water is heated to more than 70°C in a sustaiable manner.